by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

by Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports

When LaMarcus Aldridge was weighing his career options last summer, wondering how long the Portland Trail Blazers rebuild might take and if he might not be better off elsewhere, there was one thought about history and his place in it that kept his wandering eye in check.

He could go down as one of the best Blazers players of all-time.

Nine months later - Clyde Drexler, Bill Walton, Terry Porter, Cliff Robinson, Geoff Petrie and the like beware - he's making that case like never before in this parity party known as the 2014 NBA playoffs.

Aldridge, whose Blazers have devastated the Houston Rockets with two road victories in this first-round series and host Game 3 on Friday night in Portland, followed his 46-point, 18-rebound showcase in Game 1 with a 43-point, eight-rebound outing in Game 2 that has put him in rare historical air. Per the team's Twitter account:

â?¢ Aldridge is the first NBA player with consecutive playoff games of 43 points or more since Tracy McGrady (April 20 to April 23, 2003).

â?¢ Aldridge's 89 points in the first two playoff games are fewer than only Michael Jordan (1986, 1988) and Jerry West (1965) in the last 50 years.

â?¢ Aldridge is the first NBA player with back-to-back 40-point games in the playoffs since LeBron James (May 24-26, 2009).

And last but certainly not leastâ?¦

â?¢ Aldridge is the only Blazers player in franchise history with two 40-point playoff games, with five other Blazers accomplishing the feat just once. (Drexler did it once with Portland and once with the Houston Rockets.)

Yes, this is exactly what he had in mind.

It was only natural for Aldridge to survey the landscape around him last summer. The Trail Blazers, who made three consecutive playoff appearances with him from 2009 to 2011, were fresh off a 13-game losing streak to finish the 2012-13 season at 33-49 (after going 28-38 the previous season). He had been forced to play out of position because his frontcourt coworker at the time, J.J. Hickson, wasn't a natural center. His free agency summer of 2015 was nearing fast, and, with general manager Neil Olshey and coach Terry Stotts entering their second seasons, uncertainty reigned in the place they call "Rip City."

His representatives met with Olshey in July to discuss options, as reported by CSN Northwest in July, though Aldridge has made it clear there was no trade demand. All was smoothed over by training camp, with Aldridge - who averaged 23.2 points and 11.1 rebounds during the regular season and was considered a fringe NBA MVP candidate - telling USA TODAY Sports in early November, "I'm happy here right now. ... I feel like we have a team that can win, that can make noise, and I feel like if we buy in then anything is possible."

That includes, apparently, a one-man barrage on the team's history books that started long before this postseason.

Aldridge, the University of Texas product who was drafted second overall by the Chicago Bulls in 2006 and immediately traded to the Blazers, is now third on the team's all-time scoring list with 10,901 points (behind Drexler's 18,040 and Porter's 11,030). He's second in field goals made (4,462) behind Drexler (6,889), which is all the more impressive considering he's just seventh in games played (577). He's fifth in rebounds with 4,709, and on pace to surpass Drexler's franchise-leading mark of 5,339 by the end of next season.

But the Blazers have hardly been the only team to survive in the hostile confines of a road venue.

A record nine road teams won in the first 16 games, marking the first time since the playoffs expanded to 16 teams in 1984 that road teams had more wins than losses in Games 1 and 2 of the first round. Last season, road teams won only twice in the first 16 games. The previous record low was seven (1993).

Somewhere, former commissioner David Stern, who pushed so hard for parity in the 2011 lockout, is smiling.

History won't be kind to the Rockets' James Harden or Dwight Howard should they fail to bounce back here. Harden, whose arrival from the Oklahoma City Thunder via trade in Oct. 2012 sparked Houston's turnaround after his well-chronicled struggles with the Thunder in that year's Finals, has picked the worst of times to lose his way offensively. After shooting 41.2% in his last 10 games of the regular season, he is a combined 14-for-47 (29.8%) from the field in these two postseason games.

Howard's pre-playoffs prediction of how this series would go has been as off-target as Harden's jumper.

"The whole key (to the series) is just me being dominant on both ends of the floor - no matter what the situation is, no matter how we play," he had told USA TODAY Sports. "I just have to make sure that I'm dominant on both ends."

But Howard has done that for the most part, averaging 29.5 points and 14.5 rebounds and looking like his old self on the defensive end as well. And the Blazers still lead 2-0.

With Howard having taken the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals in 2009 and the Eastern Conference finals in 2010, a third consecutive first-round exit will be the latest blow to Howard's battered reputation - no matter what his stat line says in the end.

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